Suggestions: 1) Read the “tiny meditation” before and/or after you read the Bible chapter to help make a self-appllication of the scriptures read. 2) Want to use both your eye gate and ear gate in taking in the Word? Just click the “Read” chapter to get started.

O what purpose are the wise, except as men hear? What noble thoughts are brought to naught by closed ears! How many great lives are rendered nugatory for lack of listening! If I cannot be a wise thinker, let me at least not be deaf to the words of wisdom.

When I would rise above the trials that vex me, the Lord shall be my high tower. When I seek a night from which to overcome my adversaries, the Lord shall be my high tower. When I would be quiet and at peace, away from the turmoil of earth, the Lord shall be my high tower.

It is not a banner of pride, but a banner of humility and the fear of the Lord. It is a banner of pride, but not the pride of man; pride in the Almighty One, who is my leader. And it is displayed, not to terrify men, even my foes, but to lead men, to draw them to God’s truth.

It is a rock that is higher than I. If it were not, it would not be higher than the waves of my troubles, for they mount over my head. But the rock to which I cling rises majestic over all waves. It reaches down to the bottom of the sea. No storm of heaven can move it.

Truly hope is a mighty power. It is the spring of life. When spring is at hand, I do not mind the final storms, however bleak, for I know that blossom time is near. And Thou, O Lord, are my expectation, my hope, my spring eternal!

Then, when the noises of the world are hushed, speak Thou to me. When a curtain is drawn over the sights of earth, appear Thou to me. When I have leisure from earth’s toil, let me find time for Thee. May my nights be holy with the practice of the presence of God.

Let my religion be an exultation! Not merely a duty, not merely a routine, not merely a task, not merely a satisfaction and a pride, but a joy, a delight, an exhilaration, a passion! If I have any desire that surpasses it, that desire shall be accounted treachery to my King.

All Thy ways are ways of plenty, my Father. Along other paths there is poverty, along other paths men’s faces are haggard and their souls faint within them; but along Thy paths the trees are heavy with fruit, and the springs sparkle with health. There is no want to them that love Thee.

What though Thou makest me to go through fire and water, to test me? If it is to test me, is not Thine eye upon me, and can I be afraid? What though the furnace of affliction is my lot? It is silver, or the possibility of silver, that is cast into the furnace. Thou doest do it to my praise!

God’s mercy upon me, God’s blessing upon me, the shining of God’s face upon me,–and why? That His way may be known upon earth, His health to all nations. Ah, what return am I making to the Lord for all His benefits?

Shall I stagger under the weight of my burdens, when the Almighty is ready to lift them up and bear them, and me with them? That would be worse pride than folly, and worse folly than pride. Nay, blessed be the Lord, who daily beareth my burden!

All strong affection has its pains. The more I love God, the more I shall be disturbed by the hostility of God’s foes, the sneers of infidels, the injuries of the church and the barriers set up in the way. But though love has its pains, who would not love?

Make no tarrying, O my God! My needs cry out to Thee. My poverty cries out to Thee. My sins and temptations cry out to Thee. I cannot do without Thee, not for a day or a night. Make hast, O my God, to deliver!

All that God has done for me is a plea that I should do much for those that are to come after me. What right have I had to these many blessings? And surely no right, if I do not pass them on to others. I stand at the gatehouse in the great aqueduct of God’s blessings. Shall I shut down the gate?

Where my Lord is King, there am I also a king! He grants me His glory and whatsoever is His is mine. In seeking to extend His kingdom I am seeking to extend my own. In exalting Him I am exalting myself. Oh, blessed union of disciple and Master, where neither knows what it means to withhold!

My feet had slipped, my danger was great, I had almost fallen. My peril was an invisible peril, the great danger of envy, leading to the greater danger of a distrust of God. Let me see that this is my greatest danger, and that recognition of it will be a safeguard against it.

The Lord’s time seems a long time! But I must remember that with the Lord a thousand years are as one day. I must seek to accustom myself to the long reaches of heaven. I must not wish to dwarf God’s great providence to the petty measure of my impatience.

The cup of my fortune, in the hand of the Lord, shall I not drink it, and gladly? If it is bitter, it is medicinal. If it is but a swallow, more would harm me. If others have a fuller cup, they are no more blessed than I; for the blessing is to have a cup at all, in the hands of the Lord!

All the earth shall praise the Lord. But some will praise Him with joy and by lives in which His will is done. And others will praise Him in spite of themselves, and by lives upon which His will is imposed. Which is to be my contribution to the universal paean?

I, too, have had songs in the night. I, too, have seen Christ shining against the darkness. I, too, have had prison doors opened, and rainbows against the clouds, and a refuge in the storms. And what I have had once, let me perpetuate it, and have it daily, by the regal power of memory.

I am a part of the history of God’s people. What they have suffered, I have suffered. Their calamities are mine, their rescues are mine, their triumphs also are mine. What God has done for His people, all through the ages, He has done no less for me. I will live upon God’s goodness in the past as well as upon His goodness in the present.

The enemy has come, and has left my life in ruins. The enemy is Sin. The ruins are ruins of character, and of all else that ruined character brings down with it. “Help me, O God of my salvation, and purge away my sin, for Thy name’s sake.”

Until I turn from death, how shall I be quickened into life? Until God turn His face upon me, how shall I turn from death? But God has turned upon me the shining of His face. Nay, He has never turned it from me. I have only turned away my eyes, and closed them.

The finest of the wheat is mine, and honey out of the rock. Nothing that is sweet and strengthening, nothing that is healthful and satisfying, is left out of my larder, is lacking from my table. For it is the table that God prepares for me, even in the presence of my enemies.

If I were to be judged by a man, I could never stand. If I had to confess my sins to a man, my tongue and my heart would fail me. But He is to be my judge who knows me thoroughly. He knows my desires for good as well as my falls into evil. He knows my sins, but also my temptations. He knows my frame, He remembers that I am dust; for was it not from the dust that He formed me?

Let my enemies be the enemies of my God! Let me forget who are my own foes, in remembering His. Let me bury my poor quarrels in waging His great war, a war whose end is peace and whose weapons are love.

My home shall be the house of the Lord. There, where He loves to dwell, shall be my favorite abiding place. Those walls shall be my shield, and that altar shall be my sun. All the paths of my business shall be highways thither. And my longings shall fly to those courts with the instinct of a bird for her nest.

It is my mercy, and not another’s. It is the mercy that God has shown to me alone. He has taken thought for me. He has singled me out from the host of sinful men. He has reached His hand to me. He has laid it upon my head, feverish with sin. He has touched me, and the fever has left me. He has shown me His mercy, and it has become mine.

Unless God teach me His way, I cannot learn it. Man cannot teach it to me, not even the wisest man. Books cannot teach it to me, not even the Book of books. My own heart, least of all, can teach it to me. But if God teach me, then I can learn from my own heart, and from other men, from books, and from the Book.

The springs of my life are in Thee, O God. If at any time I turn in my folly to other fountains, I find them dry. Some of them are worse than dry; they run poison. But in Thee, O God, is a well of living water, springing up unto eternal life.

Darkness is round about me, but Thou art in the darkness. I cannot see Thee, but Thou canst see me. I cannot hear Thee, but I can cry unto Thee, and Thou canst hear me. It is a comfort to know that Thou are there, and listening. It is all the comfort I have. Therefore it is all the comfort I need.

Let me walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy countenance. It is easy to stray aside to other lights. The world’s will-o’-the-wisps seek to draw me hither and yon. The torches of their triumphs would allure me, the glare of their festivities, the glitter of their rainbow beauty. But the light of Thy countenance is pure and sweet as a May morning. It is holy as a twilight in June. It is invigorating as a noon in December!

God, the Home of my soul! Its ancient home, before the mountains were brought forth. Its present home, as I number my days on earth. Its future home, as the beauty of the Lord descends upon me, and the work of my hands is established forever.

God is my shadow from the sun, from the scorching of life’s deserts. God is my shadow from my foes, hiding me from their pursuit. God is my shadow for rest, for the sleep that means renewing of life. God is my shadow even when I enter the land of the shadow of death, and I shall fear no evil.

“For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.” — Psalm 91:11

I will allow myself no fear of poverty or failure. I cannot fear God, and fear these things. I cannot trust God, and not trust Him for all things. Because He is my God, I shall flourish and prosper in every way. Not because I am I, but because He is God, and my God.

I rejoice in God. I exult in the majesty of Jehovah. Who is King, like my God? Who is Power, like my God? Who is Sublimity, like the Lord of Hosts? In the firmness of His throne my heart is established. In His glory my life is illuminated. In the splendor of His presence I walk erect.

When my words seemed to return to me fruitless, how did I forget God! When I fancied that my Father in heaven did not see my need, what injustice I did Him! He that planted the ear, shall He not hear? He that formed the eye, shall He not see?

God’s voice is to be heard today, and no other day. My heart must be attentive today, and at no other time. I have no other time. There is no other day. In all the measureless reaches of eternity, there is no time that is mine except today. Oh, let me hear, and let me heed!

He is come! He is to judge! His Kingdom is to rule! His will is to be done! His joy is to flood the earth! His praise is to fill the heavens! Before Him the wicked are to tremble! Before Him the righteous are to bow adoringly! And tomorrow, yea, this very day, may be that time!

If my love of the Lord is to be measured by my hatred of evil, how much do I love the Lord? Do I hate it with a perfect hatred? The evil that is in other men, do I loathe it, or condone it? The evil that is in me, do I strive against it to the death? How much do I really love the Lord?

What is in the new song that was not in the old songs? The others psalms have said all this, over and over. Ah, yes; but that is the joy of true religion, that it is ever new. New as God’s morning mercies. Fresh as His evening faithfulness. God’s never-old love shall be praised in ever new songs.

When I ask for forgiveness, is it not often merely for escape from penalty? I do not like the consequences of my sin. I do not so much dislike sin itself. But what I need is to get rid of the love of sin, not the sin’s consequences. The last is only pleasant, but the first is necessary. Take vengeance, then, of my doings, O God, but forgive me.

I am not my own. I am bought with a price. It is a price that a Creator alone could pay. I am His because He made me. First He created me, and then He created me anew in Christ Jesus. Surely I will enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise.

Girl and a rabbit getting a drink from a spring (Being thankful for water), Psalm 100:4

Since I am the Lord’s, since He actually cares that I should be His, I will try to walk worthily of my Lord. His enemies shall be mine. His friends shall be mine. His desires shall be mine. His tasks shall be mine. And his presence shall be with me, forever.

How pitiful are my complaints, O Thou the Joy of the whole earth! How childish are my fears, O Thou who hast never failed! How shortsighted is my vision, O Thou the Creator of the ends of the earth! Turn Thou my groanings into rejoicings, and teach me the wisdom of happiness.

I know how earthly fathers love; and God made earthly fathers and their love. I know how long-suffering are the earthly fathers whom God has made. I know their joy in their children when they do well, and their great sorrow in their children when they do ill. And yet from all this how little do I learn, in my stupid heart, about the perfect Father who made fathers!

In what a large and wonderful place God has set my feet! It has no bounds of space or time. It is endless in variety, exquisite in loveliness. It is warm throughout with the Father’s love. It thrills throughout with the Creator’s power. It is firm everywhere with Jehovah’s wisdom. O God, help me to be more worthy of Thy universe—and mine.

I praise Thee, O God, for the way in which Thou hast led the world hitherto. I praise Thee for noble women and strong men. I praise Thee for great thoughts, sweeping down through the ages. I praise Thee for the marvels of Thy providence. I praise Thee for Thyself!

Yea, I also have sinned with my fathers. Their iniquity has descended upon my generation, and I have taken it unto myself. They were disobedient, and I am repeating their rebellion. They forgot Thee, and I constantly forget Thee. O that I might become wiser than my fathers, instead of more foolish than they!

How long would be the catalogue of God’s goodnesses to me! Not all earth’s libraries could contain the books that would need to be written. Yet how short is the list that I have ever written, either upon paper, or upon the fleshly tablets of my heart!

No more will I waver, with half a mind for God and half a mind for mammon. My heart is fixed for Thee, O God! Thy heart has always been fixed for me. How ashamed I am that not until now has my heart been wholly yielded to Thy great heart!

Men do not know how poor I am, and needy. Men cannot know me, or my poverty and need. To know that, they must know my soul. But Thou dost know, for Thou canst see me within and without. While others help me wherein I do not need help, Thou canst reach to my ultimate need. And Thou canst meet it with perfectness.

Though I grow old with the swift passing of the years, I live with the Ever-young, and His youth shall be mine. Thou who didst fashion time, and dost hold it as Thy instrument, wilt place me also superior to time, so that the dew of youth shall be upon me, however the hairs may whiten on my head.

Is it dark round about me? The darkness is God’s promise of light! If I am of His upright ones, my darkness is more fortunate than the noonday of other men; for that noonday has no such promise in it as my midnight happily contains.

It is the sun-rising. The Lord’s name be praised! I will go forth into the day with Him, for it is His day, and I am His man. It is the sun-setting. The Lord’s name be praised! I will go forth into the night with Him, for it is His night, and I am His man. Day unto day uttereth this speech, and night unto night showeth this knowledge.

Among the many models that God has given me in this world is the great world itself. How it obeys its Maker! How it worships Him! How the hills rejoice in Him, and the seasons sing His praise! Man alone, with reason, with an immortal soul, turns from the Lord, and abuses His benefits. Let me not fall behind the sticks and the stones in honoring my God.

It is so easy to worship idols. It is so easy to make some shape with my own hands, and trust to what I can see and handle, and fail to trust in the great Reality whom I cannot see and handle. But that folly shall be far from me. Have I not learned that the real things are the invisible things of God?

The Lord does not need any return of His kindness that I might make. He does not need it, but He desires it. He does not need it, but He entreats it. And what return can I make except the return He wants me to make, that I should tell all men what He has done for me? And why does He want this? In order that He may have still more men to bless!